Category: We are artists.

Dear families,

It’s hard to believe there are only two more weeks left before the winter break! I feel happy to spend my days with your children because they make me smile and laugh with the things they say, what they do, and how they positively interact with each other. Also, the improvements I see as they work towards their goals in listening, speaking, work habits, reading, writing, math, etc. make it a rewarding day every day. For example, when I see students begin to use or incorporate new learning in their writing, it really fills me with great joy and fills my heart with excitement. Admittedly, sometimes I am so overjoyed that I spontaneously clap with excitement like a little child. Yes, the children look at me strange but it’s like I cannot contain my giddiness over the improvements I see. It actually feels more exciting than opening any present. Here are some things we learned about last week:

Ms. Innes was our TOC again on Monday. This is a write up from her: We talked about the history of First Nation’s Peoples’ in B.C. The discussion flowed into the residential school system. Then we read “When We Were Alone” by David Robertson. This picture book was delivered through a story basket containing many objects to connect students deeply to the concepts of residential schools. They then recreated a page from the book and wrote a reflection on why that page was chosen and what their favourite part was.

Ms. Innes also taught them how to say, “[Name] is my name” from the language of the Squamish Peoples’ called Sḵwx̱wúmesh Sníchim. It looks like this: Ms. Innes ḵwi un sna. There were also signs that went with each word. Please ask your child to demonstrate. 

So as an extension lesson, students were introduced to the alphabet in American Sign Language. They learned how to ask another what their name was by signing, “Your name what?” (The syntax is different than in English.) Then they responded by signing, “My name ______” followed by signing, “Nice to meet you.” They had an opportunity to practice over and over again as they greeted each other. 

Based on what we were seeing with student’s writing, we learned about what makes a sentence = subject and predicate. We then practiced with some examples on the whiteboard. After that, the real fun began. Students each received four strips of paper to write down two subjects and two predicates. We paired up and matched our subjects to our partner’s predicates. What ensued was lots of laughter because of the silly sentences that were put together as we moved from partner to partner. One of Steven’s favourite sentences was: Ms. Chan fell down a rabbit hole. There were some very creative and interesting sentences put together!

We watched the story How to Catch a Star (video link) and then students had a choice to retell the story providing the main parts or to write a sequel to the story. I so enjoyed reading their writing because of their creativity and they enjoyed writing part two to the story.

Over the next couple days, we watched the story Olive the Other Reindeer (video link) and The Elves and the Shoemaker (video link). Students were given the choice to write a prequel or sequel to the story. I so loved the creativity I saw in their writing again. They love listening to the sequels written by their classmates as we showcase word choice, use of dialogue, and creativity, for example. 

Students are really responding to the writing lessons and have continued to improve in this area. After they finish writing, they have an opportunity to conference with me. During this time, we read their writing together to learn about what they are doing well (strengths so they know what they need to continue doing) and to learn from the errors (some of these errors become our new goals). This valuable discussion provides each student with feedback on their personal learning goals so they can improve from exactly where they are as they are offered next steps in how to improve. If there is a clear area of opportunity, children are asked to take that opportunity to re-write or add on to their writing that day for immediate practice in exactly the area they need to improve. I wish you could see their faces when they come back to show me their changes – just full of pride.

We had our first Christmas concert rehearsal in the gym on Thursday. I can’t wait for you to see them perform! A reminder that your concert ticket orders are due on Monday, December 9th. There will be an afternoon performance at 1:30 pm and an evening performance at 7:00 pm on Tuesday, December 17th. 

On Friday, we walked with our little buddies to put their letter to Santa in the mailbox. I so loved hearing the chatter and laughter as they walked and talked with their little buddies. Next week on Friday, we will be decorating gingerbread cookies with our big buddies. Please send candies for our gingerbread cookies starting on Monday. Reminder that NO food products with nuts can be brought to school. We have life threatening allergies. Thank you.

We had our second session of yoga with Ms. Gomes. They learned a little about the history of yoga postures, the importance of breathing, and practiced some new postures to challenge our bodies. We have one more session this coming Friday. Please have your child wear comfortable clothing. Thank you.

Throughout the week, we reviewed fractions and decimals in preparation for their Math test on fractions. Thank you for your support at home to help them review. The decimals study guide went home on Friday. Click here to view. Grade 4’s  Math test on decimals will be on Monday; some grade 3’s wanted to challenge themselves by learning about decimals too but please know that this is not expected for grade 3’s. To find out about what the learning outcomes are for this Math unit, this information can be found on our We Are Learners – Mathematicians page.

Continue to bring in new socks for our Sock It to Poverty campaign. We will be collecting food for the Food Bank starting too.

Forms to return and make payments: Christmas concert, gingerbread cookies, and breakfast with Santa

Bring in clothing for Christmas concert in a labelled bag by Wednesday, December 11th. Thank you.

Dear families,

I believe it is important for my students to know that their teacher is a lifelong learner – still learning and wanting to learn more so that I can become a more effective teacher. They listen to me share things I learn from my PLN (Professional Learning Network) on Twitter and the books I am reading. One of the books I am reading is called Grand Conversations, Thoughtful Responses: A Unique Approach to Literature Circles. The author, Faye Brownlie, has a second edition just released on October 29, 2019 so I am looking forward to read the updates.

Students have either been reading with me in our Guided Reading group or they have chosen a book to read and meet in their Literature Circles. The book choices at this time are: Crenshaw, Frindle, and Rules. On Tuesday, they started reading and jotting down connections, questions, interesting word choices by the author or unknown words in preparation for the “Say Something” strategy. On Wednesday, they practiced the “Say Something” strategy for the first time. I thought it went well for their first time. Some shared personal connections, some found interesting word choices like “thought-grenade” from Frindle, and some shared a funny part of the story. I enjoyed the natural responses that classmates had when they felt exactly the same way in response to a certain part of the story. I can’t wait to see how their conversations evolve over time.

We learned about Aboriginal Veteran’s Day and appreciated their service contribution. Students practiced writing their own “tweet” around the theme of pride – how soldiers felt a sense of pride to be Canadian and fight for peace. Later, we made poppies to decorate our class poppy that was displayed at the Remembrance Day assembly. On the poppies, we wrote our personal messages of appreciation. We learned about why we wear poppies. During the Remembrance Day assembly, we listened to a number of moving letters as if they were written during the war from the perspective of a father or mother who stayed home and the father or son who went to war. These letters were written by students in Division 2.

We continued to work on our stories in Office 365. If you are looking for “homework”, they can always read for 20 minutes, work on their stories in O365, practice their Math (see our Math page), or go to Tynker to code.

Today, we went into the Library to practice our coding skills using Tynker. I was so impressed with their perseverance skills. Some found parts of it hard but they kept trying. Learning to code develops not only computational thinking skills in ADST (Applied Design, Skills, and Technology) but goes beyond curriculum and into the core competencies of personal awareness: self-determination, self-regulation, perseverance with challenging tasks, and resilience. There is such value in the struggle.

“Enduring and persisting in the face of struggle are crucial to learning, because learning is a hard and messy business. It’s not an easy expedition. Helping children develop the resilience they need to persist when they bump up against intellectual and social challenges is one of most important ways we can help them make the trek successfully.” – ResponsiveClassroom.org – The Value of Struggle

Coding also dives into the other core competencies of critical thinking: analyze, investigate, develop and design. With all the critical thinking they must have done during this time, if their brains made music, the library would have sounded like a loud rock concert! You know they enjoy an activity when I tell them they have one minute left and you hear a chorus of, “No or aww”.

We finished off the week with tracking our core competencies of Personal Awareness and Responsibility as well as Social Responsibility. Where are we at with our self-determination, self-regulation, and well-being? How do we contribute to our community and care for our environment, how do I solve problems in peaceful ways, how do I build relationships, and how do I value diversity? It will be most interesting to see how they move along on the continuum in these areas.

Click on image to learn more

Enjoy your long weekend, everyone!

Sincerely, Ms. Chan

Dear families,

Your children make work such a joyful place to be. Sometimes I really can’t believe that I have a job that allows me to smile and laugh so often throughout my work day! One thing I am noticing is how new friendships are developing; I am seeing different people spend time with others. Thank you for your continued support at home. I learned this past week that some of the kids have been reading the weekly updates too. What a great real life reason to read!

MONDAY: Last week, students were introduced to numbers with decimals. Since learning about fractions helps with learning about decimals, we dove into fractions this week and will eventually return to decimals next week. I have updated our Mathematicians page to include the learning outcomes for fractions and decimals as outlined in BC’s curriculum so click here to learn more. This page also includes the learning outcomes from the units covered since the beginning of the year.

TUESDAY: In preparation for our Literature Circles, students were taught the “Say Something” strategy. Together, we read a poem about loosing teeth and the tooth fairy (something we all can connect to!). They were encouraged to notice their thinking as they read – their connections, questions, or images they see in their mind. Then they were asked to “say something” to respond to the text. It can be something that reminds them of another personal experience, something that surprised them or an interesting part, an I wonder statement, or comment on how certain words helped create a visual for them (like a movie in their head), for example. This is a great strategy to practice at home so that they become accustomed to sharing thoughts, feelings, opinions, and participate in less structured conversations.

WEDNESDAY: We listened to a story called Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds and created our own! Which one scares you the most? Coincidentally, today was the same day that the school veggie program delivered baby carrots. How fitting! I love this program because students may be introduced to fruits or veggies they may have never tried before. We actually had one student who tried a carrot for the first time!

THURSDAY: Hallowe’en Day. After listening to another story by the same author, Aaron Reynolds, called Creepy Pair of Underwear, students were introduced to a new story telling app named Puppet Pals. Working in pairs, they created stories using their own creepy carrots as characters. Such a fun time working in partners being creative and playful with telling their story. In the afternoon, we shared our creative stories with the class.

If you have an iPad, Puppet Pals can be downloaded for free with limited capabilities or purchase Puppet Pals Director’s Pass for a few dollars to have the ability to add your own characters and settings.

Thank you to everyone for bringing in healthy snacks to share! I enjoyed listening to the stories of their Hallowe’en nights.

FRIDAY: Today, we welcomed Ms. Taylor as a volunteer who will be supporting us. I have known her for years through my ringette community because she is also a coach. Last year, she volunteered in my class too. Ms. Taylor has applied to SFU’s Education program to become a teacher.

We met with our little buddies for the second time. So love watching your child practice their leadership and communication skills with little ones!

The District purchased Tynker licenses (coding) for two intermediate classes per school. We are fortunate to have one of these licenses. Some students were interested to take home their account and password information to try out. On an iPad, you can download the Tynker app. Then have your child sign in with their credentials (username and password). I have asked them to download the course named Programming 101 only because this is a beginner course that will help develop their coding skills. Alternatively, Tynker can be accessed on any browser (like Chrome or Safari), tap Sign In, and enter their credentials (username and password).

Dear students,

We have been together for 8 weeks now. What are your favourite activities or lessons so far? What would you like to do more of? Please feel free to write a comment on this blog post.

Have a fantastic weekend, everyone!

Sincerely, Ms. Chan

An update on Grade 4 FSA testing: Most students have completed the two online and three written portions on reading, writing, and numeracy.

I have added some new pages to We Are Learners tab. To learn more about what has been covered in the curriculum, please check it out!

• Comprehend and Connect (new)
• Creators and Communicators (new)
• Mathematicians (updated)
• Core Competencies (I am still adding to this page.)

Field Trip to World Ringette Championships on November 28th. If you have not done so already, please click here to go to the online permission form to fill out. Thank you. To learn more about the field trip, click here.

I recently found out that our Young People’s Concert will be on the same day at 10:45 AM. We should be back shortly after 12 noon and will head to Bill Copeland sooner after. Thank you to parents who have already indicated that you can drive us and help supervise.

Enjoy watching Creepy Carrots and Creepy Underwear at home!

Cities in the Snow

If you haven’t had a chance yet, please check out our cities in the snow display in our hallway by the cloakroom area. Students used their creative minds to draw their buildings. We just love how each one of them are quite different as they made it their very own! 

Students recently made beautiful rainbows. They are hanging in our classroom and really brighten up the room! Feel free to come take a peek!

Mathematicians at Work

Both grades have been working hard while having fun as mathematicians. To find out more about what your child is learning about, please go to our We are Learners > Mathematicians page. Here is where you can find what your child is expected to know and some suggestions on how you can support learning at home. A deck of cards is really all you need to reinforce learning at home. A digital option that students have enjoyed is Math Tappers; it can be downloaded onto an iPad for free. Children can choose different sums to 20 and up to 100 to practice their addition fluency and accuracy. We are aiming for 100% accuracy and to improve on their timed score each time.

Scientists 

We have been learning a lot about water, the water cycle, sources, and conservation. To find out more about what your child learned in Term 2, please go to our We are Learners > Scientists page. Students have been really engaged in sharing their knowledge by recording their own re-creation of the water cycle using an app called Puppet Pals HD Director’s Pass. You can download Puppet Pals for free (limited characters and scenes). Students will be showing you their projects during our Family Read time tomorrow. Please join us to celebrate their hard work! Projects will be uploaded to our blog soon for everyone to enjoy.

Symbaloo

The other day, we introduced Symbaloo to the students. This is a visual bookmarking site where we have posted some fun websites to visit. To access, look to the right-hand sidebar under Links and click on Symbaloo. Some students really enjoyed Free Rice. There are online flashcards to practice sight words or Math fluency strategies. 

Primary Days of Music

Students sang beautifully today. Thank you to Mr. Douglas for teaching them such wonderful songs about diversity and taking care of our earth. 

Report Card Envelopes

A reminder to sign the report card envelope and return it to school as soon as possible. If it is not returned before spring break, may we suggest that you place the envelope inside your child’s planner; that way, the two will stay together. Thank you.

After Spring Break

We look forward to seeing your child back on April 1st refreshed and ready for an exciting week of Hip Hop dancing! Please dress appropriately each day for movement in the gym. There will be a whole school performance on Friday, April 5 in the afternoon.

If we don’t see you at the end of the day on Friday, we hope you all have a wonderful spring break! Keep up with your enjoyment of reading during the break!